Vehicle Carrying Journalists Overturned on Yerevan-Gyumri Route

A vehicle carrying a driver and four journalists overturned this morning on the route from Yerevan to Gyumri.

The journalists, Epress.am correspondent LIlit Tadevosyan and camera operator Tigran Hakobyan, Aravot (“Morning”) and Chorord Ishkhanutyun (“Fourth Self-Authority”) photojournalist Gagik Shamshyan and Photolur photojournalist Tigran Tadevosyan, were on their way to Artik penitentiary (about two-and-a-half-hours outside of Yerevan) to cover the court case of Haykakan Jamanak (“Armenian Times”) chief editor, imprisoned opposition journalist Nikol Pashinyan. The vehicle overturned due to the snow and bad weather conditions.

Thankfully, no one was hurt — only the car was badly damaged.

Note, Pashinyan, 35, was among several prominent opposition figures who went into hiding in March 2008 following a government crackdown on supporters of former president Levon Ter-Petrossian demanding a re-run of a disputed presidential election. He surrendered to the authorities in July 2009 and was subsequently sentenced to seven years in prison on charges of stirring up “mass disturbances” in Yerevan that left ten people dead.

The oppositionist will have to serve only half of the prison sentence because of a general amnesty declared by the authorities in June 2009. Both he and Ter-Petrossian’s Armenian National Congress consider the case politically motivated.